Finally got around to fixing the netbook. When Ubuntu NBR updated the last time the wifi stopped working, and the video and sound had never worked. So I decided to try another Linux distro. I downloaded gOS Gadgets and installed via a USB install. Video and sound worked immediately, wifi with the addition of the old Linksys USB wifi dongle. Internal wifi still doesn't work but this seems to be a common problem for HP Minis.

So far it works very well. gOS is based on Ubuntu, so I don't understand why Ubuntu doesn't work. The Gadgets part refers to Google Gadgets. It's heavily based on cloud computing.

Got a new 4gig SD for it as well, so plenty of open space. Now to fill it up.

Okay. So the Dell debacle is over.

Apparently (according to Dell) the reason they haven't been able to put a estimated delivery date on the order status is because there's a shortage of LCD screens right now. So I told them to cancel the order and refund my money. They've got a week to 10 business days to do so. I'll be watching.

Then I got dressed, got out of the house, and went to Best Buy.

I am now writing this on a HP Mini 1116. It has approximately the same stats as the Dell I was trying to get, with the added advantage of a keyboard that's actually typable. I'm still getting used to it but I'm able to touch type on it fairly well so far.

Had a bit of a mix up in getting Ubuntu NBR installed earlier. I'd already prepared a 2 gig USB drive with NBR -- or so I thought. When I tried to get this new machine to boot to it to install NBR, it wouldn't despite having switched it to USB as the first boot drive. I plugged it back into Galileo to check it since the NBR image file had checked on MD5 and loaded without any problem on the USB. Upon looking through the files I found all the file names in symbols and gibberish. Turns out the USB was formated for FAT16, not FAT32 as it should have been. I wiped it, reformated to FAT32, and re-wrote the disk image file. Plugged it into the HP and it loaded perfectly and installed without a hitch.

I think subsequent installation of Adobe AIR, Twhirl or some plug-ins for the browser may have knocked out the webcam though. Will have to look into it as it was working earlier and now is not.

Well. It's almost 8 PM now and I need to get home. Enough showing off for one night. :)

ETA to shipping, May 19th.

Shiny shiny shiny.

Further bulletins as events warrant.

That is all.

An update on things going right or nearly so in my world:

• Nominated for Parsecs.
• Working on 5th (?!) Zulu-5 Story
• 11 babies outside my back door! From 2 litters born several weeks apart.
• Figured out how to put map files in Open Arena
• Have lost 66 Lbs.

Caveats to above:

• "OMG, I could have sent a better submission! WHAT HAVE I DONE?!"
• "Working" on the 5th Z5 Story means sitting at my desk in the Temple writing out the jumbled mass of scenes in my head one to an index card with the intent to somehow make some kind of outline of them, and wondering how the frell am I going to turn this goopy mass of aimlessness into a coherent story.
• 11 Babies means 18 lb. bags of cat food every week, and realizing I needed to get automatic feeders for DragonCon, and spending $100 at PetSmart. Then the smallest give me the most disgusted look when I put the 3 gallon water tank out for them as if to say, "You expect me to drink from THAT?"
• Sure, I've got new maps for OA... and now the sound has gone out on the laptop.
• Have lost 66 lbs but my metabolism has adjusted by slowing my heart rate by at least an average of 10 beats/minute. So I will have to begin exercising to keep the metabolism up to burn off the remaining 40 lbs. Grrrr....

Other than that, the Stargate guy I met at LibertyCon sent me a nice e-mail saying he was starting to read the print-outs of the stories I gave him, so hey... one of them is "Wings of Icarus", tho, and I've warned him at least twice that it's slash, so if he sends me a disgusted e-mail re "Jack and Daniel SLEEPING TOGETHER?! WTF?!" he was warned. If he gets through that without squicking, then I have no fears for the copy of "Seeds of Invasion" I put in with it. 'Nuff said.

Well. I'm sitting here doing this while I let my lunch go down before I go to the gym. (bangs head against keyboard)

So much for being a professional lazy slob.

Why I Love Ubuntu
One Reason of Many


With any software release there are inevitably bugs. How many millions of lines of code are there, written by these flawed organic brains? I rest my case re: that. But what I love about Ubuntu (and Linux in general) is that instead of having to wait for Brand X to broadcast a bug fix which could take days or weeks or even months, with Ubuntu it may only take a few hours or at most a few days. And most of the time you can do the minor but annoying stuff yourself. Yes, you can actually get into the actual code and fix it yourself. No Brand X Bug Fix of the Day Update.

Case in point: With 8.04 (the new Hardy Heron) I suddenly could no longer put my computer in Hibernate mode. My Ubuntu machine, in fact both my machines, are laptops. And both Compaqs now but that's irrelevant. But anyway... at first I had thought the Hibernate bug was just this computer, as I had just acquired it not three days before the Hardy Heron release. I thought it was a peculiarity and sort of auto-lived-with-it.

But as it turns out, this is not just me. Apparently many laptop users are having this problem.

While poking about today I found a very nice Ubuntu tips and tricks blog . On it, the proprietor of the blog includes the fix for the Hibernate problem. It amounts to adding "fglrx" in one specific line of acpi-support. It's a problem with the ATI video drivers. This command removes the drivers on hibernate and reloads them on resume, or something of the sort. Problem solved.

That's all it was. Took about 2 minutes, once I had the instructions.

That kind of thing would merit a bug fix update on Windows that would take longer than that to download, and require a restart of the computer wasting even more time. And be spaghetti-coded to boot, probably.

Ubuntu. It does a body good.

So yeah, the Dell is dead. Long live the Dell.

And it wasn't even the Ubuntu crash that killed it. The tech at Affordable couldn't get into the BIOS either, which he said indicated some far worse issues than just a OS crash or whatever. I took it in this morning thinking I'd just get the HD replaced and start over, but after confirming that he couldn't get into the BIOS in any way or fashion he said I could probably send it to Dell and they could fix it.

So I thanked my lucky stars I've been flush these last few weeks, and bought another computer, on which I speak to you at this moment.

This one is another Compaq, an Evo N610C. 2gig processor, 40gig HD, 512mg RAM. 14.1 screen. After mistakenly installing Feisty Fawn (where I was looking at 150+ upgrades) I had a Homer Simpson moment and dug out one of my copies of Gutsy Gibbon. I still had quite a few upgrades to chew through, but it's mostly done now at least for the basic system stuff. I have yet to get my extra stuff installed (Liferea, XChat, Zim, Scribus, Open Arena, etc), but I figure I will take those in more piecemeal fashion. I have yet to even config Evolution, but will do that next. Not that anyone ever e-mails me, but it's the principle of the thing.

It set me back $513.

But damn it, I hardly ever indulge myself in anything. I collect USB drives and laptops, given the times is that so weird? And anyway, I only have 2 functioning computers. I know people who at last count HAD 11 FUNCTIONING COMPUTERS at one time.

I might at some point spend the time and money to get the Dell fixed, and if so may give it to my mother or one of my cousins or some other worthy individual.

As I told somebody last night on #boingboing, I collect stray computers. My first IBM compatible computer was a laptop, and I've liked them ever since.

Well, I need to get to work on Evolution and getting XChat up so I can go on #boingboing and lament the day's madness.

I think I killed the Dell.

As is apparently usual with all Linux distributions, when it went out it went out with a blaze of glory.

Was playing with it just this morning, attempting to acquire the next update on one of my programs (Zim, as a matter of fact) and had finally found a repository that had it and had added it to my update manager. I got on the Synaptic package manager, downloaded it, installed it, no problem. Then the update manager (different program) comes up with the icon saying I've got updates waiting. This is usual. It does so every other day or so, usually no more than a bug fix or some incomprehensible thing known only to Ubuntu developers. Takes no more than 5 minutes at most. Woo. This time, however, it came up with 643 updates. 643. After picking up my jaw from the floor and exercising my entire Leet vocabulary by saying "WTF?!?", I trepidaciously hit "Install".

It did so, but was not able for whatever reason to install ALL the marked updates. I don't know why. It just didn't. And it took a couple of hours just to download everything. It seemed like every program on the computer updated.

I was really looking forward to that Open Arena update.

Then the computer froze.

It seemed a little hot, so I figured it was overheating a little from all that chewing threw package data. So I turned it off.

A few minutes later, I came back and turned it on again.

It hung about a milimeter into the progress bar for starting Ubuntu.

Then a few minutes later it comes up saying "initramfs" and won't accept any commands.

Okay, I think, I'll restore from the Ubuntu CD. Put it in the drive, rebooted.

It promptly didn't boot from the CD.

I had to come in here to Copernicus and look up how to get into the BIOS to change the boot order, thinking it wasn't set to boot from the CD.

Contradictory reports had it either as F2 or F12. I tried both. Neither worked. I can't get into the BIOS. I don't know how to do this with Grub, the Linux boot manager. All I get from Grub is the options to boot from the kernel with either normal or recovery mode, neither of which work.

So I have no options left.

Except either buying a new used laptop (there's a nice Compaq Evo at Affordable that I wouldn't mind having) or getting a new hard drive (also an attractive and far cheaper option) and starting over.

Until I get this resolved, I will be WITHOUT MY ENGADGET, EEESITE, UMPCPORTAL, ECOGEEK AND WRAITHBAIT FEEDS. So be advised and use appropriate caution when dealing with me. I am NOT a happy camper!

And damn it, I was really looking forward to that Open Arena update...

Update:

1. The therapist thing has worked out quite satisfactorily and outlook is looking up. The therapist in question seems to be conversant with Jungian things, so I am hopeful. And the money concern has been worked out. So.

2. After a bizarre few days of watching functionality gradually erode away on Xandros, culminating in my Firefox browser loading up in a 3 inche square window that could not be resized or maximized, I got fed up. I downloaded and installed Ubuntu, another Linux distro that so far has worked beautifully in that it is nearly ghost-like in it's unobtrusiveness and ease of use. Also I was able to get a very interesting program to do one's own wiki, which has simply loads of narcissistic possibilities.

3. Car news: Monday I went to go LOOK at what Honda has to offer these days and two hours later walked out with signed paperwork to buy a Honda Fit. It has everything I wanted on the Yaris and the salesman said he could have it in for me by Wednesday night. Sold! says a wait-weary I. I spent Tuesday rushing around getting ducks in a row (took down payment money to the credit union and applied for the loan, went to see my insurance guy, etc). They had to bring the car I was supposed to get from another dealership here in the area. I get out of work today expecting to have a voice mail saying my car was in. Instead, I get a call saying call the sales guy. I did, to be told that the person who was supposed to bring my car from the other dealership wrecked the car. In the parking lot of the other dealership. Some idjit wrecked my car before I even got to drive it. So the sales guy said he had a regular light-silver Fit on the lot right then if I wanted it, or I could get the dark-silver like I'd ordered and wait two weeks. I said I'd wait the two weeks because damn it, that's what I ordered! But once more I'm waiting. After telling everybody including my mother that I would have a new car today. I went with Honda because I was tired of waiting to get my new car. If I wanted to wait until the middle of June, I'd have stayed with Toyota. So now I have to explain to the credit union ladies what's going on, and my insurance guy... sheesh. All patience does is get you screwed over.

4. As reported on BoingBoing today, some group of nutcases intent on "cleaning up the Internet" is targeting slash writers on LiveJournal. For some idiotic reason these goombas are equating slash with child molestation, pedophilia, and incest. Apparently what these screwballs don't realize that what we write is fiction. While there are a considerable number of stories depicting non-consensual sex and even rape in slash fiction, it is fiction. And at least in Stargate fic usually involves some alien influence, the Goa'uld, the Wraith, the Genii (usually Kolya) or some other alien presence. It's almost always in the context of one of the main characters getting attacked and the recovery afterward with the help of the other main characters. Considering the great majority of slash is written by women, I'd say it reflects a reality that a lot of women have to face. It probably has helped the writers to deal with things happening in their own life. Fiction can do that. You can put your characters in similar situations to what you have to face yourself, and let them find a way out of it. It can put it all at a once-removed distance.

And aside from all that, good slash is just plain hot.

Y'know, it's usually the people who scream the loudest about "obscenity" who have the biggest porn collections.

And, uh... tortured naked man in agony, nailed to a tree. Sadism and bondage much? Next question, noobs.

In pagan circles at least they're honest about all the sexual symbolism.